Charms
by cutekittenlady
Summary: Some cultural miscommunications causes Allura to have a crisis of the heart.
1. Chapter 1

Hi are you still taking requests? Can you do a fic where Keith is going to different planets a lot and the princess thinking he has a girlfriend so she asks the group if he has a girlfriend or ever had one?

"Is Keith in here?"

Lance, Hunk, and PIdge looked up to see Allura peering into the room from around the door frame.

Pidge shot the two boys a questioning look before answering, "Uh… no."

With a sigh Allura slipped into the room and sat down on a nearby box.

"Thank goodness. I really don't want to speak with him right now."

Her tone was irritable.

All three paladins raised an eyebrow at once another, but none of them spoke. They had learned from experience that if the princess ever got really frustrated with one of them she did one of two things. She either internalized it and made passive aggressive remarks until she cooled off OR she'd get away and vent to someone, usually Coran or the mice, about it.

Knowing this, the three sat in silence quietly waiting for the princess to-

"I just can not _believe_ him"

Ah there it was.

"What'd Keith pull this time?" Lance asked.

Hunk and Pidge eyed each other, in mutual acknowledgement of their friends jealousy.

"It's infuriating!" The princess gestured angrily and stomped a foot. "I don't know what I could have done to deserve such… such… such _treatment_."

Lance frowned. Allura getting frustrated with Keith's more stubborn tendencies was nothing new. But he'd never seen her seem so personally indignant. Whatever it was Keith had done, it had to have been bad.

Allura fumbled with something at her side and threw it, actually _threw_ it, at their feet.

"Just look at this!" she gestured at the small chain on the floor. "Can you believe he gave me a barbacle!"

All three glanced down and stared at the item there. No one said anything as Allura stood there, her arms crossed in righteous fury.

"He just waltzed right up to me and handed it over! Didn't even bother to explain himself. Just asked me what I _thought_. Just… Just… ARGH!"

Lance picked up the little chain and glanced at Hunk desperately biting his lower lip. The yellow paladin held up his hands and shook his head.

Looked over to PIdge Lance found her packing up her stuff as quickly as possible Clearly intending to get far far away.

He sighed. Once again he was left to fix things and pick up the pieces.

Clearing his throat, Lance asked, "Uh…. princess? What exactly _is_ a barbacle?"

She scoffed. "Like you don't know."

Lance shrugged. "Amuse me."

Rolling her eyes the princess explained.

"It's supposed to be a way of making one's grievances known to a person, especially someone in a higher position, without causing a scene or giving away one's identity. Each of the symbols on the trinket represent a different grievance." She glared at her feet clearly upset. "You're supposed to give it to people you dislike. _Anonymously…_. But I guess Keith missed out on that part."

"So… that's what you think?"

"Of course! What else COULD it be?!"

"A charm bracelet."

Allura stopped and looked at Lance.

"A… a what?"

"A charm bracelet." Pidge explained. "It's a common piece of jewelry on earth. The charms are supposed to represent hobbies and stuff. People give them as gifts sometimes."

Allura stared at her blankly.

"Uh what she's trying to say…" Lance hesitated before finishing. "Is that Keith was probably trying to give you a present. Not a barnacle, or whatever."

He handed the bracelet back to the princess who just cupped it in her hands and stared at it.

"It's kinda shotty though." Pidge said, happy to no longer be staring down an angry Allura. "Where do you think he got it? The mall?"

"I don't think so." Hunk added thoughtfully. "He said he never wanted to go back there after what happened last time."

"Yeah being chased by a mad mall cop will do that to you." Pidge thought for a moment. "You don't think he made it himself do you?"

"I don't see how else he could've gotten one."

Smirking like a gremlin, Pidge couldn't help but tease. "Maybe he made it for his _girlfriend_."

Allura looked up, "Girlfriend?!"\

"He's sitting in a tree." She sing-songed. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G"

"No one is _sitting in a tree_ on MY watch!" Lance huffed. "Right Allura?"

He paused awaiting a response only to be answered by the sound of the closing door.

Shiro sat flipping through different updates of progress in the coalition's efforts. Things were going well at the moment. Hopefully they'd soon have enough force to go on the offensive. He was so absorbed in his task that the sound of Allura rushing onto the bridge made him jump.

"Is everything alright princess?"

Allura stopped in the middle of frantically looking around the room and fixated her eyes on Shiro.

"Yes-I mean… no. Not r-really. I mean… Where's Keith?"

"Keith?" Shiro looked at her worriedly. "He just left with the blades."

"He's gone?!"

"Yes. Is there something wrong?"

"I forgot… to tell him something."

"Is it important? We could open a channel and-"

"No." Allura cut him off abruptly. "I-I mean… it's not urgent."

It took a few minutes for Allura to properly ensure Shiro that it was nothing important. Once she'd managed to accomplish that she hurried out of the room. Leaving Shiro wondering both what she had been on about as well as what she'd been clutching in her hand.

Keith had come and gone from the castle since then. But every time it would always be when Allura was out or otherwise preoccupied. It hadn't exactly taken a lot to make Allra greatly concerned.

She'd managed to corner Kolivan and ask him about Keith's progress and when he might be at the castle again. But the old galra had simply shrugged and responded that the boy had been traveling all over. 'Following leads' had been the excuse but Kolivan had his doubts.

The princess's suspicious were aroused.

If Keith wasn't flying around the universe for the blade, then why was he? He couldn't have been looking for information on Lotor given he was now with the coalition. And an information he had gathered for the blade he'd have had to report to Kolivan.

Then her imagination started up.

The next time any of the paladins saw Allura, she was bursting through the door in the common room and asking

"Has Keith ever… had a girlfriend?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Has Keith ever… had a girlfriend?"

Allura had just blurred out the question.

She had actually meant to build up to the subject over time, but once she'd walked through the door to see the other paladin's the words had just come pouring out. Now she was left standing there with everyone looking at her.

"Uhh," Hunk shifted awkwardly in his chair. "Come again?"

The princess just stood there stiff as a board and flushing profusely.

Thankfully, Lance saved her from having to repeat herself.

"Oh c'mon Hunk. I mean, Keith? With a girlfriend? As if!"

"Well…" all eyes turned to Shiro, "you'd be surprised."

"No freaking way." Pidge grinned. "Are you saying Keith has a girlfriend back on earth?!"

Shiro suddenly looked like he regretted speaking.

"N-not exactly. It's a little…" he stopped mid sentence fully aware he was speaking a bit too freely.

A tongue clicked.

"Oh you poor naive children." All eyes shifted to Matt. "You're asking the wrong guy. You see, Shiro may have been Keith's mentor but WE were classmates together. I've seen it all!"

Everyone leaned in.

"Matt, I don't think this is-" Shiro began.

"Oh don't be such a wet blanket it's just a bit of idle it's not anything all that bad. Aaaand~" He winked at the princess. "I really can't refuse a request from a lady."

Lance's annoyed groan went unnoticed.

"So…" Allura shuffled a bit awkwardly. "Does he?"

Matt smiled, a knowing twinkle in his eye.

"Nope."

No one said anything. Though there was a distinctive feeling of disappointment in the air.

"Oh," Pidge sighed. "Here I thought you were building up to something funny."

"Oh my sweet sweet baby sister." Matt patted her shoulder and smiled, "The fact that Keith doesn't have a girlfriend is the funniest part."

Matt allowed his words to have their effect.

"Back at the garrison Keithy boy was like, the hottest guy on the market."

"Market?" Allura gasped.

"Just a turn of phrase." Hunk soothed. "It means he was considered an eligible bachelor."

Lance huffed. "I was an eligible bachelor too."

Pidge giggled. "Well that goes without saying."

"As I was saying," Matt continued. "Keith was like, super popular with the ladies. Don't ask me why. I mean, I think it was because he was a pilot. Chicks. Dig. Pilots. Indisputable fact."

"I don't think that's true." Shiro muttered.

Matt looked accusingly at him before gesturing at him and announcing, "Exhibit A folks. Number one most attractive instructor at the garrison. Voted in three years in a row. And he's a pilot. Ergo, chicks dig pilots."

"Heck yeah they do." Lance agreed, warming to the subject.

"Anyway so one day we're walking out of Professor Montgomery's class, right? And this girl walks up to Keith and basically says, right there in the hallway, that she likes him."

"She… did?" Allura was blown away by the audacity. On Altea it was considered impolite to conduct such matters in such a public area. But she supposed on earth things were done different.

"And you know what he said?"

"What?"

"He looked at her and, without missing a beat, said, 'I like you too!' and walked away!" Matt opened his hands to show how incredulous he was. "He didn't even REALIZE that she meant she like liked him and later told me he thought it was an odd thing to randomly tell someone."

"Wow." Pidge whistled. "That takes a special kind of dense."

"OH I know. And after I explained it to him he had no idea what to do about. Wasn't sure if he should apologize or something since he said it the way he did."

"What did he do?" Allura asked, curious.

"Well I told him not to do anything. Best to just leave the girl be and all that. But, well, you guys know Keith. Can't leave well enough alone. So he goes off and apologizes to this one girl, but forgets that tha also means he kinda has to reject her. So there's Keith with a crying girl in the hallway, he has no idea WHAT to do, and everyone's staring." Matt paused before sighing and finishing. "In the end he just kinda walked away and kept his head low for the next few weeks. Had the reputation of a heartbreaker after that."

Matt shrugged and went on.

"My point is that as far as I know, Keith is too dense to really have a girlfriend. Plenty of girls back on earth liked him, but he never really managed to to catch on. It's not that the guy is dumb, I think it's just romance isn't one of the things he particularly good at."

"I… see…" Allura muttered. Some great weight felt as though it had been lifted from her shoulders.

"If you don't mind me asking princess," Lance suddenly cut in. "Why do you ask?"

Matt side eyed to blue paladin and gave him a hard jab in the ribs with his elbow. Lance jumped and glared a the other like some kicked puppy.

"Oh," she searched her brain for an answer but found none. "I-I was just… curious. See he's been gone so long and uhm, well I'm sure he's meeting a lot of new people is all."

"What you think Keith has an alien girlfriend?" Hunk asked.

"Well I mean… it is possible isn't it?"

"Keith having a secret alien we don't know about is about as likely as Lance having a secret alien girlfriend we don't know about." PIdge said sagely. "Highly improbable."

"Hey, how do you know I don't have a secret alien girlfriend?!" Lance protested.

"Lance… c'mon." Pidge sighed. "If you had an alien girlfriend, there's no way you'd keep her a secret."

From there the two devolved into bickering with Hunk occasionally having to smooth over a random comment. In the confusion no one noticed Matt discreetly go over to Allura.

"I don't think you have to worry Princess." He whispered as the others argued. "I mean, you've seen Keith lie right? There's no way he'd be able to keep a secret like that from everyone."

Allura sighed, knowing what he said was true. But in that case, how else could she explain Keith's odd behavior as of late.

If he wasn't running leads for the blades, or having rendezvous with some beautiful alien maiden, then for what reason was he wandering the galaxy?

With no answer to this question, Allura couldn't help but continue to worry.


	3. Chapter 3

Keith hissed in pain and stuck his finger in his mouth. That had been the fifth time he had stuck himself in the past hour, but if he had any hope of finishing this in time he was going to have to stick at it. Sighing, he leaned against the cool wall of his small room.

The blades didn't have the fanciest furnishings around, but they were sufficient. A part of Keith wondered if his life of solitude had been fated to prepare him for a life of fighting in space. After all, if he'd grown up in a mansion he doubted he'd have adapted to the small barracks at the garrison or on the marmora base nearly as quickly as he had.

He looked down in his lap at what he'd completed thus far. Collecting everything had been difficult but worth it. He'd seen so many different places and met so many different people. Way more than he had on earth.

And he'd found out things. Things about the universe, other people, and himself. The fact that he was, at least partly, _alien_ still felt like a vague fever dream.

So many things had changed in his life in such a short amount of time. It was almost hard to reconcile.

The biggest difference was the number of people in his life. Before it had just been Shiro and Matt. But now there was Hunk, Lance, Pidge, Coran, Kolivan… and Allura.

 _I wonder if she's still mad at me…_

The way she'd reacted had been a shock. So much of a shock, in fact, that Keith couldn't even really be angry. Instead he'd just been confused.

At least until he'd spoken to Coran.

Honestly, he should have thought of speaking to him BEFORE making Allura a gift that doubled as an Altean insult. But that just seemed to be the way things went for Keith. The harder he tried to get closer to people the more it seemed backfire.

Even now he wasn't confident Allura would be able to forgive him even after he finished this apology gift. But it was the only thing he could do.

He just hoped she liked this one.

* * *

Allura sat alone on the observation deck playing with the bracelet in her hand. She'd managed to get help from the paladins in deciphering what all the charms represented on earth.

At first she'd worried about being able to properly identify everything since the whole thing was homemade. However, it seemed the craftsmanship was good enough to easily identify the symbols.

There were seven charms in all. The first she'd easily identified as a star. The second was a sun. The third seemed to be a really simple rendition of some kind of flower.

The fourth she had needed a little help to identify, but Pidge had told it was an artistic representation of a moon. More specifically one that had waned to slit. It seemed an odd choice in Alluras mind, but it was still pretty.

The next two, were a little harder to figure out since they were a little more complex than the others. But after a lot of discussion it was agreed that the two were likely a lion and a mouse. Obviously representing the lions and the space mice, who were more than a little flattered to have been included.

The final one Allura had kept to herself. She wanted to talk to Keith about it's inclusion, and what exactly it was he had meant it to mean.

But as it was, the princess wondered if he'd ever really come back to her.

He had always returned to her in the past. No matter what it was that kept them apart. But in the past she hadn't thrown a homemade gift in his face.

She had always been rather harsh with Keith. First there was that whole thing when she'd found out he was part galra. Though she'd realized her mistake, it was still something she hadn't readily forgiven herself for. Then when he'd distanced himself from the team, she hadn't pushed hard enough to get him to open up with her.

If she had, a lot of pain may have been avoided.

As she dreamily stared out into the void of space, she failed to notice the door to the observatory opening. Nor did she hear the steps approaching her from behind. She didn't even register his presence until he spoke.

"A-Allura?"

The princess blinked.

And turned around to see Keith standing behind her.

"Do you, uh, do you have a minute?"

Allura stared at him for a moment, but then smiled and nodded.

Keith didn't sit down. Instead he shuffled around in one of the pouches attached to his belt.

"I-I uhm, I'm sorry about before. I asked Coran about it and he told me about how charms worked on Altea and how it was this big insult and I really should have asked him to begin with, but-but I didn't think of it at the time and I-"

He stopped when Allura took his hand and pulled him down to take a seat next to her.

"I know." She said gently. "I, too, am sorry. I should have said something to you instead of storming off."

"Well, I mean, that's not your fault. You couldn't have known it wasn't a-"

"And neither could you." She cut in. Allura frowned and faced forward. "It's a very nice bracelet. I should have thanked you for it."

"A-About that." Drawing something from his pouch he held it out to Allura. "Coran told me that Alteans exchanged necklaces with the people they uh… that they liked."

Princess Allura stared open mouthed at the decorative necklace dangling in the air in front of her. It was obviously handmade. Held together by some kind of knotted cord. But the jewels that were laced into it were very much real.

"I found this one on thayserax, and this one on the balmera, and this-"

"Keith." He stopped mid sentence to see Allura smiling at him. "Thank you. It's much more than I deserve."

Leaning over, she wrapped her arms around his torso and held him close.

Keith couldn't help but return the gesture.

Burying his face into her hair, he whispered.

"You deserve the stars and so much more."

Allura didn't reply. Instead she gripped the small charm bracelet in her hand. Running her fingers over the small heart shaped one, whose meaning she no longer needed to ask.


End file.
